Somewhat Unique Bike Rack Questions

[Al Denty]

Hi All.

There are dozens of threads on the Airstream Forums about bike racks, but I think our situation may be a bit unique, so please read on and hopefully give us some guidance.

We just sold our 2021 Basecamp 16x and are about to go full-time in our new 2023 Flying Cloud 30FB Office (arriving in just a few weeks!) and 2022 Ram 2500 4x4 diesel tow vehicle. We are both cyclists, so we each have carbon road bikes and we also each have electric mountain bikes. If we only had two bikes, I think it would be easy to decide upon bike racks for the rig, but with four bikes, two of which are each more than 50 pounds, we are unsure of how to proceed.

We have considered nearly every possible way of carrying the bikes including...

• Front Hitch Mounted Rack - We originally considered this for our mountain bikes, but the bikes and/or rack will block headlights, license plate, parking sensors, etc. Not to mention the possible visual obstruction for the driver. All of this makes this option a no-go.
• Fork Mount Inside Bed Under Truck Cap - We could put a truck cap on the Ram, put some fork mounts in the bed of the truck and put the MTBs inside there. This would both add cargo space ("use the cube") and subtract cargo space (the space taken up by the bikes). It is an expensive possibility and it requires us to remove the front wheels of the bikes and will take some work to get those heavy bikes up inside the bed, especially when there is other stuff inside the bed (e.g., generator, Jerry can, barbecue, etc.). I like the idea of a truck cap for weather resistance, but the cost, complexity, and potential loss of cargo space are all factors that concern me.
• "Roof Rack" Mounted About the Tonneau Cover - With a Retrax tonneau cover, we could any manufacturer's cross bars and any manufacturer's upright or fork mount bike carriers, as long as we remove the batteries from the electric bikes. This would leave the entire truck bed for cargo, plus we could also put a cargo box on the same rails as the bike carriers for even more cargo space. We could then put the road bikes on a bike rack mounted to the rear of the trailer (Fiamma or hitch-mounted). Considering the height of the Ram 2500, getting the MTBs up there will for sure lead to injury, divorce, or both. We could certainly put the road bikes up there, but then where do we put the mountain bikes? One idea would be to put them on a...
• Rear Mounted Rack on Flying Cloud - If we have a solution for the eMTBs, then we could use a Fiamma rack for the road bikes on the back of the Flying Cloud. Another idea would be to put a hitch receiver on the trailer and then use a Swagman Escapee or Swagman E-SPEC for the mountain bikes, thereby allowing the road bikes to mount above the tonneau cover (they're light, so getting them up there would be a snap). The question I have is whether or not this is too much weight to have hanging off the end of the trailer. The bikes are about 50-55 pounds each and the rack is about 66 pounds, so that is about 170 pounds not including the weight of the hitch receiver. We will be using a Blue Ox system, but thinking back to high school physics this still seems like a lot of weight at the end of a long arm.

These are all of the ideas we have researched and it seems like no matter which we choose we will get the best of the worst solutions. We've watched the KYD and LoLoHo videos on this topic but none of them help because our situation is so unique.

I am hoping that some of you have had some experience with similar situations and can give us some advice based upon your time on the road.

Looking forward to any and all assistance!

David

[Boxite]

The fork-mount under the cap will improve your fuel economy due to reduced drag from relative-wind. I hate rear-mounts as dangerous and harmful to the trailer, you’ve already recognized the problem with roof mounts, and you’ve already pointed out the weakness of front hitch mounts. The best solution may be the most up-front money…but I believe will be the money best-spent.

[Offack]

I agree with Boxite, money well spent, and we have tried them all. Only suggestion is to mount your fork mounts on 2x4 fitting the rear of your truck bed . Thatway you can hold forks in your hands and roll rear of bikes into bed, fastening to fork mounts without having to climb over everything. I found if 2x4 fits snug from side to side it won’t move around and when you need a “flat” bed....it removes easily
Happy Biking Offack

[jeffmc306]

I agree with the two previous posters - inside storage offers the safest transportation of your expensive bikes. Our RAM 2500 fits in the garage without a Cap but wouldn’t with one so I came up with another way to transport bikes.

We take our Specialized eBikes with us inside our 27’ Globetrotter between the twin beds on a rack I made with Kuat fork mounts. I don’t worry about weather exposure or theft when we stop along the route.

The only downside is when you’re stopping every night until you get to your destination. Unloading at the end of the day and loading again in the morning does add time. Good luck with your decision!

[BayouBiker]

I went the fork mount with canopy route too. Works great but as noted, not a perfect solution, it is a hassle. I have yet to see what I consider a unique and perfect option. Having the canopy is super nice though for the extra room and protection.

[FLCoast]

We started with a swagman 2 bike fork mount truck bed bar and put our camp gear around it. It worked for awhile but took up too much space. And no, we don't carry a lot. We've ended up with the Retrax ProMX with the trax rail system. We then have a Yakima HD bar and 2 highroad bike racks. We carry two Specialized street bikes with us. I also have the Fatcat 6 EVO ski racks that I carry our fishing rods with. The bars are rated on road for 300 lbs so I would think they'd handle your bikes. I mounted the bike racks toward the end of the racks in a place to still let the cab break the wind and close enough to make it easy to lift and mount the bikes. You could lift the bikes while standing in the bed and place them in the racks that way. The highroad racks are very easy to use. The nice thing about this arrangement is that the bikes don't interfere with our gear storage below. They also don't interfere with us using the trailer if we stop for the night or camp and don't feel like taking them off the truck. They also don't interfere with the Retrax cover. We do use heavy chain (sleeved) and locks to secure the bikes when on the road. Good luck with your selection.

[JetstreamAS]

We have a RAM 3500 so it is the same size as your 2500. You have listed all the options and we went through the same thing. Have 4 bikes on many trips, 2x electric and either 2x MTB or 2x road bikes. Carrying them in the Airstream or using a truck cap were non-starters.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Get a Retrax Pro XR (or other Retrax with t-slots). Put a Yakima or Thule (or whatever) system with crossbars and a bike mount above the retractable tonneau. It locks and you can still use the full capacity of the bed minus the area up front where the Retrax retracts to. You can also have a cargo box, cage or whatever and the bikes as well. We actually have a Yakima crossbar setup and the Yakima Overhaul HD as well to put kayaks up top on two Thule Hullavators.

2. Get the EcoHitch Front Hitch from e-trailer. Super strong and bolts on with minimal fuss:

https://www.etrailer.com/Front-Recei...ID=20196007491

Put aside your worries about the front hitch and put the e-bikes there. Your concerns are valid but easily fixed/addressed. We tarp the bikes when it rains while stationary and will put the bikes in the trailer if traveling with heavy rain. Zero issues with visibility and if you don’t tailgate you don’t have to worry about road debris. Pull the seats off and wipe the bugs off upon arrival, and wrap pipe insulation on downtubes, etc. if you are worried. We don't tow at night so headlights are not an issue.

It works for us and avoids the issue of the rear trailer load/sway, mess in the trailer, and keeps all the load capacity for the truck bed and racks. Get a Küat Piston Pro X for the front hitch, and the best part is the rack lowers enough where you don’t have to lift the bikes far at all.

Message me if you have any questions. Front rack below:

[Boxite]

Front racks have a safety hazard in that oncoming traffic may not have any view at all of your turn-signalling. We travelled with a couple who ended up with serious transmission-damage when one of their bikes dislodged over a RR-crossing and they ran over it. If you use such…. secure it well.

[SSquared]

Two thoughts:

There is a brand of bike rack that mounts to the tongue and holds the bikes above the propane tanks. The name might be Arvika. I don't know what the weight capacity is.

If you go with bikes racks above the tonneau, considering adding a plank or two alongside the bike racks. This lets you walk/stand above the bed and might make it easier to wrangle the bikes. This picture shows the idea (They put ten bikes on the van this way).

[JetstreamAS]

Originally Posted by Boxite

Front racks have a safety hazard in that oncoming traffic may not have any view at all of your turn-signalling.

Not really an issue when you have signaling blinkers on your side mirrors as well. If you can't see those on our truck, you have bigger problems!

Originally Posted by Boxite

We travelled with a couple who ended up with serious transmission-damage when one of their bikes dislodged over a RR-crossing and they ran over it. If you use such…. secure it well.

Also not an issue as this applies to any type of item secured anywhere and outside of the tow vehicle, trailer - front of TV, above the bed or roof, above the tanks, behind the trailer, etc.

See how the bikes attach to the Küat Piston Pro X:

https://www.kuat.com/product/piston-pro-x/

[Llittle54]

We really like the Diamondback cover. People carry ATVs on their heavier models. Walking on the cover is no issue. I used Yakima tracks to mount the racks and we now have even heavier bikes. Still a pain to get up there but doable unlike a roof height rack.
Since the cover is metal you could get even more reinforcement in rack attachment by using metal plate as a backer. 2 e bikes and 2 light road bikes would not be a problem at least in my opinion.
Everything os a compromise but this has worked well for us.
Last note - on our last long trips, for the long mile push home I’ve taken off the front wheels of our full s ebikes and put them in the back seat area of our crew cab F150. Seems like just less wear and tear and better gas mileage. For the most part their on the cover for convenience.

[Skillet]

That you will not be able to put those ebikes on the Retrax easily, just an awkward experience, requires a lot of strength. We do our road bikes and MTB's up there and it works out well, but they are pretty light bikes. Jetstream AS's idea sounds best - you will want those ebikes close to the ground to minimize the lift. I use Rhino-Rack crossbars above my Retrax and 1UP bike trays (my fav)

[226TuckL]

Originally Posted by BasecampCouple

Hi All.

There are dozens of threads on the Airstream Forums about bike racks, but I think our situation may be a bit unique, so please read on and hopefully give us some guidance.

We just sold our 2021 Basecamp 16x and are about to go full-time in our new 2023 Flying Cloud 30FB Office (arriving in just a few weeks!) and 2022 Ram 2500 4x4 diesel tow vehicle. We are both cyclists, so we each have carbon road bikes and we also each have electric mountain bikes. If we only had two bikes, I think it would be easy to decide upon bike racks for the rig, but with four bikes, two of which are each more than 50 pounds, we are unsure of how to proceed.

We have considered nearly every possible way of carrying the bikes including...

• Front Hitch Mounted Rack - We originally considered this for our mountain bikes, but the bikes and/or rack will block headlights, license plate, parking sensors, etc. Not to mention the possible visual obstruction for the driver. All of this makes this option a no-go.
• Fork Mount Inside Bed Under Truck Cap - We could put a truck cap on the Ram, put some fork mounts in the bed of the truck and put the MTBs inside there. This would both add cargo space ("use the cube") and subtract cargo space (the space taken up by the bikes). It is an expensive possibility and it requires us to remove the front wheels of the bikes and will take some work to get those heavy bikes up inside the bed, especially when there is other stuff inside the bed (e.g., generator, Jerry can, barbecue, etc.). I like the idea of a truck cap for weather resistance, but the cost, complexity, and potential loss of cargo space are all factors that concern me.
• "Roof Rack" Mounted About the Tonneau Cover - With a Retrax tonneau cover, we could any manufacturer's cross bars and any manufacturer's upright or fork mount bike carriers, as long as we remove the batteries from the electric bikes. This would leave the entire truck bed for cargo, plus we could also put a cargo box on the same rails as the bike carriers for even more cargo space. We could then put the road bikes on a bike rack mounted to the rear of the trailer (Fiamma or hitch-mounted). Considering the height of the Ram 2500, getting the MTBs up there will for sure lead to injury, divorce, or both. We could certainly put the road bikes up there, but then where do we put the mountain bikes? One idea would be to put them on a...
• Rear Mounted Rack on Flying Cloud - If we have a solution for the eMTBs, then we could use a Fiamma rack for the road bikes on the back of the Flying Cloud. Another idea would be to put a hitch receiver on the trailer and then use a Swagman Escapee or Swagman E-SPEC for the mountain bikes, thereby allowing the road bikes to mount above the tonneau cover (they're light, so getting them up there would be a snap). The question I have is whether or not this is too much weight to have hanging off the end of the trailer. The bikes are about 50-55 pounds each and the rack is about 66 pounds, so that is about 170 pounds not including the weight of the hitch receiver. We will be using a Blue Ox system, but thinking back to high school physics this still seems like a lot of weight at the end of a long arm.

These are all of the ideas we have researched and it seems like no matter which we choose we will get the best of the worst solutions. We've watched the KYD and LoLoHo videos on this topic but none of them help because our situation is so unique.

I am hoping that some of you have had some experience with similar situations and can give us some advice based upon your time on the road.

Looking forward to any and all assistance!

David

We struggled with a similar problem, and after numerous racks purchased and options, considered, we ended up with putting one of our specialized E bikes on the Fiamma rack… And the other inside our Ram Laramie with the rear seats up. My guess is your Ram may have the same option as our Laramie when the seats are up the floors, flat and easily fit our second E bike with spare room for some misc stuff. You’re two road bikes could than be put on top of the truck. Just a thought. Works perfectly for us.

[PB_NB]

We are in the same camp as Llittle54 with the Diamondback covers.

We did Thule cross bars on our Diamondback cover. I could put 4 bikes on that without issues. With a small modification, we can carry our 2 12' kayaks and 2 bikes at the same time. The Diamondback cover is like a blank canvas that you can attached all sorts of things to and it is tough, the HD version can carry up to 1,600 lbs. on it.

Your Retrax cover probably doesn't have the capacity to carry much on the top of it.

[banderabob]

SSquared mentioned the Arvika rack, a Canadian company. We had this on our first 2 Airstreams (our third came with the Fiamma rack) and were pleased. We mounted 2 Trek mountain bikes for a total weight of 70 lbs. There is a built-in lock. Two considerations. You need to feel comfortable lifting the bikes about 5 feet to place in the tire racks, after which you’ll need to stand on the hitch / frame to secure with the top arms. And, while mounted for travel, you will be unable to open the front window. This rack comes in two distinct parts. What I call the lower portion in permanently installed on the A-frame behind the propane tanks. The upper portion which sits above the propane tanks, seats into the lower portion, and is fully removable. We adjusted the rack height to allow limited access to the propane tanks to switch from one tank to the other. Hopefully the picture will show enough for clarity.

[gmattingly]

We have a rack on our hard Silverado bed that we have put our carbon bikes on and non-electric mountain bikes on the Flam rack on the back of our 26' 2006 Serenty.

We have since gotten 2 dost ebikes, and we put them inside of the airstream in the isle, after loaded, and lean them against the dining table that's in the bed position, using moving pads between them and rigging up a strap to keep them from moving around. Worked great on out last 500 mile trip.

haven't found a good way other than the above to haul 60lb+ bikes while pulling the Serenty.

[10Smiles]

We have a canopy with a rack on top that we use for our two mountain bikes (non-e). To load I put the tailgate down and close the canopy hatch, then I set one bike on the tailgate without the front wheel. Then I get up there and lift the bike onto the rack. I roll the back wheel along the rack and secure the fork. Then I secure the back wheel using a two step stool. Works well for us.

[Al Denty]

I just want to say thank you to everyone who responded with such thoughtful responses. This community is a phenomenal resource and I, for one, am so honored and humbled to be able to gain from all of your wisdom and experience. I hope to be able to return the favor to the community over time.

In the meantime, you have all given us a great deal to think about. We are going to discuss and consider all of this carefully before making any decisions. The good news is that we have a three-week shakedown cruise which starts at the end of January so that we can get a feel for what exactly we want to do. We will then make our decision after that.

Thanks again and happy holidays to all!

[jcazes]

Will be following this thread closely as I bike a LOT (7000 miles a year) and I need to identify a similar solution for 3-4 bikes ahead of next summer.

I have an F150 with an UnderCover Ultra Flex folding tonneau cover and non-e mountain / road bikes. I was initially leaning towards an over-bed rack, like the Truxedo Elevate rack or other rack systems mentioned in this thread, but I'm reconsidering getting a truck bed cap because of the convenience factor.

In addition to not having to worry about weather protection, storing in the bed / under a cap would also seem to allow you to go places with the tow vehicle and not worry about having to lock your bikes up at camp (which isn't secure enough for expensive bikes - bike locks are essentially worthless).

Having just spent 3 months biking through CO, I primarily stored my bikes in my truck's back seat area for this exact reason (despite having over-bed mounting options at my disposal). Going for a hike, to get groceries, out to eat, etc. would either require me to put the bikes in m AS or hide them in the bushes at camp, so I just took off the front wheels and put them in the back of my truck after my rides.

Some have cautioned against rear-mount racks due to the risk of frame/shell separation from the bouncing weight. Good thread with some more intel: https://www.airforums.com/forums/f54...me-182599.html

[akarakos]

I was at Aluma Pelouze in September and saw the bike rack system for the back of a trailer that was completely different than anything I’ve seen. People had a receiver, welded underneath the rear of their trailer and then attach the 1UP rack. This rack is Aluminum and can easily be lowered away from the trailer to access the rear storage and/or bumper. We’re waiting for our 3rd trailer and this appears to be the solution several have discovered. You can add additional bikes. Check at :
www.1UP-USA.com